Valentinus

Valentinus: Adam's Name

The following text is excerpted from Bentley Layton in The Gnostic Scriptures (Doubleday 1987), p. 237. The text comes from Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 4.89.6-4.90.1. Please refer to Layton for background, bibliography, and notes.

Fragment D

However much a portrait is inferior to an actual face, just so is the world worse than the living realm. Now, what is the cause of the (effectiveness of the) portrait? It is the majesty of the face that has furnished to the painter a prototype so that the portrait might be honored by his name. For the form was not reproduced with perfect fidelity, yet the name completed the lack within the act of modeling. And also god's invisible cooperates with what has been modeled to lend it credence.